Clara Ingram Judson - "Mary Jane: Her Book"

Albert Einstein - "Relativity: The Special and General Theory"

P. G. Wodehouse - "Love Among the Chickens"

Octave Feuillet - "Monsieur de Camors, v1"

New Philadelphia Book Publisher Highlights Local Talent
Book and Publishing News from Publishers Newswire(tm)

Looking for Child to be on Cover of a New Book, 'The Model Child'
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- The Philadelphia literary world will celebrate the launch of two new players today, April 10th: Kay Square Press, a new publishing company focused on Philadelphia-area artists, their stories, and their art; and Kay Square's first release, 'With the Rich and Mighty: Emlen Etting of Philadelphia' (ISBN: 978-0-9815129-0-7), a critical biography by Kenneth C. Kaleta.

FlatSigned Press Alleges Don Imus Remarks Damage Legacy of President Gerald R. Ford
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Nathan Yungerberg, an accomplished model scout and professional child photographer is launching a nation-wide casting call to find the cover model for his highly anticipated book release, 'The Model Child: A Parents Guide to the Child Modeling Industry' (ISBN: 978-0-9817018-0-6).

Books: The Life of George Borrow

H >> Herbert Jenkins >> The Life of George Borrow




A serious difficulty now arose in the resignation of Mendizabal
(March 1836). Two of his friends and supporters, in the persons of
Francisco de Isturitz and Alcala Galiano, seceded from his party,
and, under the name of moderados, formed an opposition to their Chief
in the Cortes. They had the support of the Queen Regent and General
Cordova, whom Mendizabal had wished to remove from his position as
head of the army on account of his great popularity with the
soldiers, whose comforts and interests he studied. Isturitz became
Premier, Galiano Minister of Marine (a mere paper title, as there was
no navy at the time), and the Duke of Rivas Minister of the Interior.

Conscious of the advantage of possessing powerful friends, especially
in a country such as Spain, Borrow had used every endeavour to
enlarge the circle of his acquaintance among men occupying
influential positions, or likely to succeed those who at present
filled them. The result was that he was able to announce to Mr
Brandram that the new ministry, which had been formed, was composed
"entirely of MY friends." {175a} With Galiano in particular he was
on very intimate terms. Everything promised well, and the new
Cabinet showed itself most friendly to Borrow and his projects, until
the actual moment arrived for writing the permission to print the
Scriptures in Spanish. Then doubts arose, and the decrees of the
Council of Trent loomed up, a threatening barrier, in the eyes of the
Duke of Rivas and his secretary.

So hopeful was Borrow after his first interview with the Duke that he
wrote: --"I shall receive the permission, the Lord willing, in a few
days . . . The last skirts of the cloud of papal superstition are
vanishing below the horizon of Spain; whoever says the contrary
either knows nothing of the matter or wilfully hides the truth."
{175b}

At Earl Street the good news about the article in the Espanol gave
the liveliest satisfaction. "Surely a new and wonderful thing in
Spain," wrote Mr Brandram {175c} in a letter in which he urged Borrow
to "guard against becoming too much committed to one political
party," and asked him to write more frequently, as his letters were
always most welcome. This letter reached Madrid at a time when
Borrow found himself absolutely destitute.

"For the last three weeks," he writes, {175d} "I have been without
money, literally without a farthing." Everything in Madrid was so
dear. A month previously he had been forced to pay 12 pounds, 5s.
for a suit of clothes, "my own being so worn that it was impossible
to appear longer in public with them." {175e} He had written to Mr
Wilby, but in all probability his letter had gone astray, the post to
Estremadura having been three times robbed. "The money may still
come," he continues, {176a} "but I have given up all hopes of it, and
I am compelled to write home, though what I am to do till I can
receive your answer I am at a loss to conceive . . . whatever I
undergo, I shall tell nobody of my situation, it might hurt the
Society and our projects here. I know enough of the world to be
aware that it is considered as the worst of crimes to be without
money." {176b}

For weeks Borrow devoted himself to the task of endeavouring to
obtain permission to print the Scriptures in Spanish. The Duke of
Rivas referred him to his secretary, saying, "He will do for you what
you want!" But the secretary retreated behind the decrees of the
Council of Trent. Then Mr Villiers intervened, saw the Duke and gave
Borrow a letter to him. Again the Council of Trent proved to be the
obstacle. Galiano took up the matter and escorted Borrow to the
Bureau of the Interior, and had an interview with the Duke's
secretary. When Galiano left, there remained nothing for the
conscientious secretary to do but to write out the formal permission,
all else having been satisfactorily settled; but no sooner had
Galiano departed, than the recollection of the Council of Trent
returned to the secretary with terrifying distinctness, and no
permission was given.

Tired of the Council of Trent and the Duke's secretary, Borrow would
sometimes retire to the banks of the canal and there loiter in the
sun, watching the gold and silver fish basking on the surface of its
waters, or gossiping with the man who sold oranges and water under
the shade of the old water-tower. Once he went to see an execution--
anything to drive from his mind the conscientious secretary and the
Council of Trent, the sole obstacles to the realisation of his plans.

Borrow informed Mr Brandram at the end of May that the Cabinet was
unanimously in favour of granting his request; nothing happened.
There seems no doubt that the Cabinet's policy was one of subterfuge.
It could not afford to offend the British Minister, nor could it, at
that juncture, risk the bitter hostility of the clergy, consequently
it promised and deferred. A petition to the Ecclesiastical Committee
of Censors, although strongly backed by the Civil Governor of Madrid
(within whose department lay the censorship), produced no better
result. There was nothing heard but "To-morrow, please God!"

Foiled for the time being in his constructive policy, Borrow turned
his attention to one of destruction. He had already announced to the
Bible Society that the authority of the Pope was in a precarious
condition.


"Little more than a breath is required to destroy it," he writes,
{177a} "and I am almost confident that in less than a year it will be
disowned. I am doing whatever I can in Madrid to prepare the way for
an event so desirable. I mix with the people, and inform them who
and what the Pope is, and how disastrous to Spain his influence has
been. I tell them that the indulgences, which they are in the habit
of purchasing, are of no more intrinsic value than so many pieces of
paper, and were merely invented with the view of plundering them. I
frequently ask: 'Is it possible that God, who is good, would
sanction the sale of sin? and, supposing certain things are sinful,
do you think that God, for the sake of your money, would permit you
to perform them?' In many instances my hearers have been satisfied
with this simple reasoning, and have said that they would buy no more
indulgences."


Mr Brandram promptly wrote warning Borrow against becoming involved
in any endeavour to hasten the fall of the Pope. Although deeply
interested in what their agent had to say, there was a strong
misgiving at headquarters that for a few moments Borrow had
"forgotten that our hopes of the fall of -- are founded on the simple
distribution of the Scriptures," {178a} and he was told that, as
their agent, he must not pursue the course that he described. The
warning was carefully worded, so that it might not wound Borrow's
feelings or lessen his enthusiasm.

Borrow had found that the climate of Madrid did not agree with him.
It had proved very trying during the winter; but now that summer had
arrived the heat was suffocating and the air seemed to be filled with
"flaming vapours," and even the Spaniards would "lie gasping and
naked upon their brick floors." {178b} In spite of the heat,
however, he was occupied "upon an average ten hours every day,
dancing attendance on one or another of the Ministers." {178c}

Sometimes the difficulties that he had to contend with reduced him
almost to despair of ever obtaining the permission he sought. "Only
those," he writes, {178d} "who have been in the habit of dealing with
Spaniards, by whom the most solemn promises are habitually broken,
can form a correct idea of my reiterated disappointments, and of the
toil of body and agony of spirit which I have been subjected to. One
day I have been told, at the Ministry, that I had only to wait a few
moments and all I wished would be acceded to; and then my hopes have
been blasted with the information that various difficulties, which
seemed insurmountable, had presented themselves, whereupon I have
departed almost broken-hearted; but the next day I have been summoned
in a great hurry and informed that 'all was right,' and that on the
morrow a regular authority to print the Scriptures would be delivered
to me, but by that time fresh and yet more terrible difficulties had
occurred--so that I became weary of my life."

Mr Villiers evidently saw through the Spanish Cabinet's policy of
delay; for he spoke to the ministers collectively and individually,
strongly recommending that the petition be granted. He further
pointed out the terrible condition of the people, who lacked
religious instruction of any kind, and that a nation of atheists
would not prove very easy to govern. It may have been these
arguments, or, what is more likely, a desire on the part of the
Cabinet to please the representative of Great Britain, in any case a
greater willingness was now shown to give the necessary permission.
Measures were accordingly taken to evade the law and protect the
printer into whose hands the work was to be entrusted, until an
appropriate moment arrived for repealing the existing statute.

Borrow forwarded to Earl Street the following interesting letter that
he had received from Mr Villiers, which confirms his words as to the
keen interest taken by the British Minister in the endeavour to
obtain the permission to print the New Testament in Spanish


DEAR SIR,

I have had a long conversation with Mr Isturitz upon the subject of
printing the Testament, in which he showed himself to be both
sagacious and liberal. He assured me that the matter should have his
support whenever the Duque de Ribas brought it before the Cabinet,
and that as far as he was concerned the question MIGHT BE CONSIDERED
AS SETTLED.

You are quite welcome to make any use you please of this note with
the D. de Ribas or Mr Olivan. {179a}

I am, Dear Sir,
Yours faithfully,
GEORGE VILLIERS.
June 23rd [1836].


It was unquestionably Borrow's personality that was responsible for
Mr Villiers' interest in the scheme, as when Lieutenant Graydon
{179b} had applied to him on a previous occasion he declined to
interfere.

At Borrow's suggestion the President of the Bible Society, Lord
Bentley, wrote to Mr Villiers thanking him for the services he had
rendered in connection with the Spanish programme. It was
characteristic of Borrow that he added to his letter as a reason for
his request, that "I may be again in need of Mr V's. assistance
before I leave Spain." {180a} Borrow was always keenly alive to the
advantage of possessing influential friends who would be likely to
assist him in his labours for the Society. He was not a profound
admirer of the Society of Jesus for nothing, and although he would
scorn to exercise tact in regard to his own concerns, he was fully
prepared to make use of it in connection with those of the Bible
Society. He was a Jesuit at heart, and would in all probability have
preferred a good compositor who had been guilty of sacrilege to a bad
one who had not. He saw that besides being something of a
diplomatist, an agent of the Bible Society had also to be a good
business man. He has been called tactless, until the word seems to
have become permanently identified with his name; how unjustly is
shown by a very hasty examination of his masterly diplomacy, both in
Russia and Spain. Diplomacy, as Borrow understood it, was the art of
being persuasive when persuasion would obtain for him his object, and
firm, even threatening, when strong measures were best calculated to
suit his ends. It is only the fool who defines tact as the gentle
art of pleasing everybody. Diplomacy is the art of getting what you
want at the expense of displeasing as few people as possible.

"The affair is settled--thank God!!! and we may begin to print
whenever we think proper." With these words Borrow announces the
success of his enterprise. "Perhaps you have thought," he continues,
"that I have been tardy in accomplishing the business which brought
me to Spain; but to be able to form a correct judgment you ought to
be aware of all the difficulties which I have had to encounter, and
which I shall not enumerate. I shall content myself with observing
that for a thousand pounds I would not undergo again all the
mortifications and disappointments of the last two months." {181a}

There were moments when Borrow forgot the idiom of Earl Street and
reverted to his old, self-confident style, which had so alarmed some
of the excellent members of the Committee. He had achieved a great
triumph, how great is best shown by the suggestion made by the prime
minister that if determined to avail himself of the permission that
had been obtained, he had better employ "the confidential printer of
the Government, who would keep the matter secret; as in the present
state of affairs he [the prime minister] would not answer for the
consequences if it were noised abroad." {181b} By giving the license
to print the New Testament without notes, the Cabinet was assuming a
very grave responsibility. All this shows how great was the
influence of the British Minister upon the Isturitz Cabinet, and how
considerable that of Borrow upon the British Minister.

Now that his object was gained, there was nothing further to keep
Borrow in Spain, and he accordingly asked for instructions,
suggesting that, as soon as the heats were over, Lieutenant Graydon
might return to Madrid and take charge, "as nothing very difficult
remains to be accomplished, and I am sure that Mr Villiers, at my
entreaty, would extend to him the patronage with which he has
honoured me." {181c} In conclusion he announced himself as ready to
do "whatever the Bible Society may deem expedient." {181d}

Borrow now began to suffer from the reaction after his great
exertions. He became so languid as scarcely to be able to hold a
pen. He had no books, and conversation was impossible, for the heat
had driven away all who could possibly escape, among them his
acquaintances, and he frequently remembered with a sigh the happy
days spent in St Petersburg.

A few days later (25th July) he wrote proposing as a member of the
Bible Society Dr Luis de Usoz y Rio, "a person of great
respectability and great learning." {182a} Dr Usoz, who was
subsequently to be closely associated with Borrow in his labours in
Spain, was a man of whom he was unable to "speak in too high terms of
admiration; he is one of the most learned men in Spain, and is become
in every point a Christian according to the standard of the New
Testament." {182b}

Dr Usoz also addressed a letter to the Society asking to be
considered as a correspondent and entrusted with copies of the
Scriptures, which he was convinced he could circulate in every
province of Spain. The advantage of having one of the editors of the
principal newspaper of Spain on the side of the Society did not fail
to appeal to Borrow. Dr Usoz not only became a member of the Bible
Society, but earned from Borrow a splendid tribute in the Preface to
The Bible in Spain.

Before advantage could be taken of the hardly earned permission to
print the New Testament in Madrid, the Revolution of La Granja {182c}
broke out, resulting in the proclamation of the Constitution of 1812,
by which the press became free. In Madrid chaos reigned as a result.
Borrow himself has given a vivid account of how Quesada, by his
magnificent courage, quelled for the time being the revolution, how
the ministers fled, how eventually the heroic tyrant was recognised
and killed, and, finally, how, at a celebrated coffee-house in
Madrid, Borrow saw the victorious Nationals drink to the Constitution
from a bowl of coffee, which had first been stirred with one of the
mutilated hands of the hated Quesada. {183a}

Now that no obstacle stood in the way of the printing of the Spanish
New Testament, Borrow was requested to return to England that he
might confer with the authorities at Earl Street. "You may now
consider yourself under marching orders to return home as soon as you
have made all the requisite arrangements; . . . you have done, we are
persuaded, a good and great work," {183b} Mr Brandram wrote. It was
thought by the Committee that the advantages to be derived from a
conference with Borrow would be well worth the expense involved in
his having to return again to Spain.

To this request for his immediate presence in London Borrow replied:


"I shall make the provisional engagement as desired [as regards the
printing of the New Testament] and shall leave Madrid as soon as
possible; but I must here inform you, that I shall find much
difficulty in returning to England, as all the provinces are
disturbed in consequence of the Constitution of 1812 having been
proclaimed, and the roads are swarming with robbers and banditti. It
is my intention to join some muleteers, and attempt to reach Granada,
from whence, if possible, I shall proceed to Malaga or Gibraltar, and
thence to Lisbon, where I left the greatest part of my baggage. Do
not be surprised, therefore, if I am tardy in making my appearance;
it is no easy thing at present to travel in Spain. But all these
troubles are for the benefit of the Cause, and must not be repined
at." {183c}


Leaving Madrid on 20th August, Borrow was at Granada on the 30th, as
proved by the Visitors' Book, in which he signed himself


"George Borrow Norvicensis."


The real object of this visit appears to have been his desire to
study more closely the Spanish gypsies. From Granada he proceeded to
Malaga. Neither place can be said to be on the direct road to
England; but the disturbed state of the country had to be taken into
consideration, and it was a question not of the shortest road but the
safest.

On his return to London, early in October, Borrow wrote a report
{184a} upon his labours, roughly sketching out his work since he left
Badajos. He repeated his view that the Papal See had lost its power
over Spain, and that the present moment was a peculiarly appropriate
one in which to spread the light of the Gospel over the Peninsula.
Forgetting the thievish propensities of the race, he wrote glowingly
of the Spaniards and their intellectual equipment, the clearness with
which they expressed themselves, and the elegance of their diction.
The mind of the Spaniard was a garden run to waste, and it was for
the British and Foreign Bible Society to cultivate it and purge it of
the rank and bitter weeds.

He foresaw no difficulty whatever in disposing of 5000 copies of the
New Testament in a short time in the capital and provincial towns, in
particular Cadiz and Seville where the people were more enlightened.
He was not so confident about the rural districts, where those who
assured him that they were acquainted with the New Testament said
that it contained hymns addressed to the Virgin which were written by
the Pope.



CHAPTER XII: NOVEMBER 1836-MAY 1837



Borrow remained in England for a month (3rd October/4th November),
during which time he conferred with the Committee and Officials at
Earl Street as to the future programme in Spain. On 4th November,
having sent to his mother 130 pounds of the 150 pounds he had drawn
as salary, and promising to write to Mr Brandram from Cadiz, he
sailed from London in the steamer Manchester, bound for Lisbon and
Cadiz.

In a letter to his mother, he describes his fellow passengers as
invalids fleeing from the English winter. "Some of them are three
parts gone with consumption," he writes, "some are ruptured, some
have broken backs; I am the only sound person in the ship, which is
crowded to suffocation. I am in a little hole of a berth where I can
scarcely breathe, and every now and then wet through."

The horrors of the voyage from Falmouth to Lisbon he has described
with terrifying vividness; {185a} how the engines broke down and the
vessel was being driven on to Cape Finisterre; how all hope had been
abandoned, and the Captain had told the passengers of their impending
fate; how the wind suddenly "VEERED RIGHT ABOUT, and pushed us from
the horrible coast faster than it had previously driven us towards
it." {185b}

During the whole of that terrible night Borrow had remained on deck,
all the other passengers having been battened down below. He was
almost drowned in the seas that broke over the vessel, and, on one
occasion, was struck down by a water cask that had broken away from
its lashings. Even after he had escaped Cape Finisterre, the ordeal
was not over; for the ship was in a sinking condition, and fire broke
out on board. Eventually the engines were repaired, the fire
extinguished, and Lisbon was reached on the 13th, where Borrow landed
with his water-soaked luggage, and found on examination that the
greater part of his clothes had been ruined. In spite of this
experience, he determined to continue his voyage to Cadiz in the
Manchester, probably for reasons of economy, indifferent to the fact
that she was utterly unseaworthy, and that most of the other
passengers had abandoned her. During his enforced stay in Lisbon,
whilst the ship was being patched up, Borrow saw Mr Wilby and made
enquiry into the state of the Society's affairs in Portugal. Many
changes had taken place and the country was in a distracted state.

After a week's delay at Lisbon the Manchester continued her voyage to
Cadiz, where she arrived without further mishap on the 21st. During
this voyage a fellow passenger with Borrow was the Marques de Santa
Coloma. "According to the expression of the Marques, when they
stepped on to the quay at Cadiz, Borrow looked round, saw some
Gitanos lounging there, said something that the Marques could not
understand, and immediately 'that man became une grappe de Gitanos.'
They hung round his neck, clung to his knees, seized his hands,
kissed his feet, so that the Marques hardly liked to join his comrade
again after such close embraces by so dirty a company." {186a}

Borrow now found himself in his allotted field--unhappy, miserable,
distracted Spain. Gomez, the Carlist leader, had been sweeping
through Estremadura like a pestilence, and Borrow fully expected to
find Seville occupied by his banditti; but Carlists possessed no
terrors for him. Unless he could do something to heal the spiritual
wounds of the wretched country, he assured Mr Brandram, he would
never again return to England.

On 1st December Mr Brandram wrote to Borrow expressing deep sympathy
with all he had been through, and adding: "If you go forward . . .
we will help you by prayer. If you retreat we shall welcome you
cordially." He appears to have written before consulting with the
Committee, who, on hearing of the actual state of affairs in Spain,
became filled with misgiving and anxiety for the safety of their
agent, who seemed to be destitute of fear. Mr Brandram had been
content for Borrow to go forward if he so decided, but, as he wrote
later, "your prospective dangers, while they created an absorbing
interest, were viewed in different lights by the Committee," who
thought they had "no right to commit you to such perils. My own
feeling was that, while I could not urge you forward, there were
peculiarities in your history and character that I would not keep you
back if you were minded to go. A few felt with me--most, however,
thought that you should have been restrained." {187a} It was decided
therefore to forbid him to proceed on his hazardous adventure, and
accordingly a letter was addressed to him care of the British Consul
at Cadiz. If Borrow received this he disregarded the instructions it
contained.

Cadiz proved to be in a state of great confusion. It was reported
that numerous bands of Carlists were in the neighbourhood, and the
whole city was in a state of ferment in consequence. In the coffee-
houses the din of tongues was deafening; would-be orators, sometimes
as many as six at one time, sprang up upon chairs and tables and
ventilated their political views. The paramount, nay, the only,
interest was not in the words of Christ; but the probable doings of
the Carlists.

On the night of his arrival Borrow was taken ill with what, at the
time, he thought to be cholera, and for some time in the little
"cock-loft or garret" that had been allotted to him at the over-
crowded French hotel, he was "in most acute pain, and terribly sick,"
drinking oil mixed with brandy. For two days he was so exhausted as
to be able to do nothing.

On the morning of the 24th he embarked in a small Spanish steamer
bound for Seville, which was reached that same night. The sun had
dissipated the melancholy and stupor left by his illness, and by the
time he arrived at Seville he was repeating Latin verses and
fragments of old Spanish ballads to a brilliant moon. The condition
of affairs at Seville was as bad if not worse than at Cadiz. There
was scarcely any communication with the capital, the diligences no
longer ran, and even the fearless arrieros (muleteers) declined to
set out. Famine, plunder and murder were let loose over the land.
Bands of banditti robbed, tortured and slew in the name of Don
Carlos. They stripped the peasantry of all they possessed, and the
poor wretches in turn became brigands and preyed upon those weaker
than themselves. Through all this Borrow had to penetrate in order
to reach Madrid. Had the road been familiar to him he would have
performed the journey alone, dressed either as a beggar or as a
gypsy. It is obvious that he appreciated the hazardous nature of the
journey he was undertaking, for he asked Mr Brandram, in the event of
his death, to keep the news from old Mrs Borrow as long as possible
and then to go down to Norwich and break it to her himself.